About Local Number Portability (LNP)

Local Number Portability (LNP), or Mobile Number Portability (MNP), allows people to keep their phone number when changing service providers. Mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to increase competition among service providers, number portability was instituted in the U.S. for wireline phones in 1996 and wireless phones in 2003. The Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) is the system that is used to facilitate number porting.